Save paper!

 Hi everyone, while looking through my Travel Journal from last year I found a tram ticket that we used in Angers.

I had some black paint that had been smudged on with an old credit card onto a page in an A5 rectangle journal. I added some Aubergine coloured paint using the same method then stencilled some zigzags with turquoise paint.

I had a few silver wrappers from some paints I bought in Paris - they went on to the page first. 

The question on the ticket asks "and what if we stopped the paper?" - the answer is "travel light with the M ticket" - it is to encourage the use of smart phones to .

I found a Metro ticket which I swiped with  Seedless Preserves Distress Ink(this also went around the edge of the page.) I will resist using my phone to pay for anything for as long as I can! 

As I was now finishing this page while hubby was bed and I needed to be quiet I chose the first box I could to look for an image. Fortunately it had some old calendar pages in so some flowers were cut from one page and the image was cut from the back of an Alphonse Mucha calendar and then I went to the actual page to cut out some stars.

I thought I might add more this morning but I am convinced that this page is complete.

There are still a few days of Bleubeard and Elizabeth's 'Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose' theme at Art Journal Journey so if you have any pages to add we will be pleased to see you.

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands For The Long Walk

Hi everyone, we've actually had a few walks lately but none as long as the first day in Paris.

We had been invited to the opening evening of Version Scrap in The Parc Floral in St Vincennes.

We had often said that we should visit the adjoining Bois de Vincennes. We knew it was a long way and the weather forecast was cool, sunny with a few showers.

I had a plan.....walk to Bercy, through the park....

....then lunch at one of our favourite restaurants Chez Pauline.

As you can see we sat and had a drink while we waited for our order of Honey/Mustard Pork and Fondant potatoes. We both had water and I had a Tonic water too!

I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth at The Altered Book Lover blog for T stands For Tuesday - where you will also find lots of other lovely folk also sharing their drink related posts.

While we were eating we missed the only rain of the day - it really poured down for about 15 minutes and then the sun reappeared!

It was an easy walk to the South end of the Bois de Vincennes.

At first we enjoyed the beauty of the wood, then we had to take a detour around a fenced off fairground area which took us off the direct route we had expected to take.

I am always fascinated by Mistletoe growing .

Back on track...

.......we saw the Pagoda of a Buddhist centre

We also spotted this rock which we think was in the Park's Zoo (a trip for another time maybe?)

By this time our water bottles had dried up and places to sit seemed to be few and far between....

..I was flagging - and, quite clearly here - not very happy! I had stopped taking photos, I wanted to stop!!!!

I had asked some one if there was a cafe nearby by and he just shrugged his shoulders and said 'This is a wood' 

We walked on and then hubby spotted an Equestrian centre - and noticed people under parasols.

There must be a cafe for users of the centre.....surely????

We reached the gate and I was delighted to find that it was 'Ouvert à Tous'- Open to all! We went in and had a cold drink and shared a piece of Lemon Meringue tart!

No photos - I was just so pleased to sit down.

Once back on the path we saw a sign to our destination - Parc Floral, where Version Scrap was being held.

Mark and Leandra of Paper Artsy had a big stand - it was lovely to see them and when it became less busy have a catch up.

Aall and Create had a large stand too and lovely Abs (not in pic) gave us a great welcome too!

Time to leave - but we were due back on the Saturday for me to take a workshop!

That day we walked over 25,000 steps - around 12 miles(19km)...I slept really well!

Thanks for looking,Chris

More Junk Journal

 Hi everyone, I have some more pages from my Texture Junk Journal.

They are for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's Art Journal Journey theme 'Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose'

Both of these pages have die cuts that I made from instant coffee boxes (you know - the ones that have sachets of flavoured coffee)

The page for the top one is from an old book and also has some offcuts from other projects.

The bottom one is on a rescued piece of sketch pad and has some mop up ink, parts of an old calculator page, a small piece of Gelli print and a bird cut from an old book.

We seem to have a series of appointments coming up so hoping to get some visits to blogs in soon.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Junk Journal.

Hi everyone, I have several journals that I class as junk journals. Some are regular journals or sketch books that I use to make pages with leftover items, as well as some stamping, stencilling and collage with bought papers.

This one is a true junk journal.

The cover is made with some painted bubble wrap and all of the pages are chosen for their texture or the sound they make when they are turned.

Four of the pages are made from a chocolate wrapper.

You can probably guess what first attracted us to this chocolate but I must say that the chocolate itself is delicious never mind whose name it is. This particular flavour is my favourite. On here I just added a pice of leftover paper from a page in a journal.

The plant images here came from a magazine and a leaflet

This one has a piece of gelli printed paper, a sugar wrapper from a coffee shop in Salzburg  and a small wrapper from a pack of mini chocolates

This page has a piece of leftover background from some card making, the bird is part of some wrapping paper and the green scallop paper was the backing from a craft item.

I am going in at Art Journal Journey where Elizabeth's theme is 'Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose' 

Thanks for looking, Chris

Rainbow colours at TIOT

Hi everyone, when did a fortnight get reduced to one week? Well, at least that is what it feels like! 

Yes, it's time for a change of theme at Try It On Tuesday. We're asking you to choose 'Rainbow Colours'. You will find plenty of inspiration here from the Design Team.

I made a card with a rainbow of Distress Inks that were added to an acrylic block then spritzed with water and pressed the card on to it. It was something I did with a friend who'd never tried this technique before so there were lots of 'oohs and aahs'

We used water colour paper and when I got home I stamped it with part of an Indigoblu stamp. The card was stamped with a Paper Artsy mini stamp which I used unmounted to get a random effect. I used a corner rounder cutter on both. I stamped the sentiment and outlined the 'rainbow' with gold pen.

I hope you can join us with your 'Rainbow Colours' this time at TIOT - there are a few rules which you can find here.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Recycling memories.

 Hi everyone. I have another page for Elizabeth's Art Journal Journey theme 'Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose'.

I made this page in our hotel room - I bought some Tim Holtz crayons and wanted to try them out. I just scribbled them onto the page and used a water brush and added some stamping using part of a new stamp.

All of the scraps were in my little pink container.

You can tell the size of the case from the standard size pens - the inks are minis, the little tin contains die cuts and little scraps

The back (behind the pens) usually has my travel journal in too.

                           ------------

There's a scrap of journal fodder I made with corrugated card, paper and some washi tape. I also used part of a cupholder from one our favourite places to eat at St Pancras(saved from December), a leafy scrap from a flyer, Mowana was on a cheese triangle we had when we made ourselves a ham and cheese baguette one year and I think the robin may have been from a die cut bag.

The page is from a bargain price Dylusions Journal I bought at Version Scrap.

I've got a couple of busy days coming up but hope to see you soon.

Thanks for looking, Chris

If you want to find out what happened on the first few days of our trip you can read it in my Calendar Journal here

T Stands For The Start Of Our Trip To Paris

Hi everyone, I missed you last week. Our journey home took longer than expected thanks to Avanti West Coast trains!

Our journey to Paris went very well though! 

We had time to have lunch at The Hansom at St Pancras Station.

It is somewhere I have wanted to go to for a while but usually we only have time for a quick snack.

It was quite a warm day so we both chose salads - mine was my favourite Caesar and hubby had Niçoise. We shared a pot of fries. We both opted for water as our drinks and it is these I am sharing at T Stands For Tuesday at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's Altered Book Lover blog.

It is quite a grand place as it used to be part the entrance for the station and is accessed from the station from the old booking office which is a rather grander restaurant. 

We had a good journey to Paris and when we arrived had lovely welcome from the receptionist

In our hotel room there was a lovely, surprising welcome from the manager.

She had written us a lovely welcome note and left us some chocolates.

We saved them until Easter Day and can report that they are delicious. 

We had a good catch up the next day before setting off on a very long walk.

Here is the view from our room.

We took a better photo of this at ground level - it is part of an art trail and this particular wall art changes every year.

This is on the opposite side of the road

I love to look out over the rooftops - were on the fourth floor of the six storey hotel

The roof garden at the centre of this photo fascinates me. The owner has added new things over the years.

Here is a close up I took a few years ago. 

That's all for now.

Next time I will tell you about our long walk.

Thanks for looking, Chris

A very late Calendar journal page

Hi everyone, as you can see I am very much in catch up mode.

I totally forgot to make my calendar journal page before we went away - I wrote down notes so that I could fill it in.

It does mean though, that I was able to use some things from our trip on the pages.

When we order coffee in Paris it usually comes with sugar, (we do sometimes remember to say we don't need any) I know it only gets thrown away if we don't use it so I always drop the sachets in my bag. This year some got used up on some very tart lemon crepes that we ordered. 

The violets are new Paper Artsy stamps by Alison Bomber (of Words and Pictures blog)They always make me think of my Gran, whose birthday was in April - she loved them.

The backing for the left hand corner is a Gelli print practice piece and also has magazine pics and some corrugated wrapping paper.

I hope I have recycled enough for Elizabeth's Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose' theme at Art Journal Journey

I intended adding more flowers to last months pages but when I looked at the photo I had taken I saw that I didn't get around to colouring them in!

Thanks for looking, I'll be back with some photos of Paris soon, Chris